Wanted to Keep

12 Comments

This is small lens. That’s its main claim to fame, not the speed at f2.8, nor the focal length, the equivalent of about 35mm in 35mm photography. But on the small Olympus PEN body, this lens gives you a small package that takes quite good pictures without messing around with a zoom. In particular, it works well as a walking-around street camera, much like an old Leica or a Canon rangefinder of the 1950s/1960s. (See also the optical viewfinder which has image lines specifically for this 17mm lens.)

I need to update my wish list. I am going to retest all the better lenses on the 7. Mainly the macros or other lenses that are pushing the limits of the 14 MP sensor. I would test on the 5n, but the MP difference isn’t that much from the 3, and I can’t afford to buy all the bodies 🙂 The main reason I got the 7 is I figured the extra high MP would give me a better feel for how the lens performs vs how the sensor performs, although anything above 6 MP starts to stress some of the lenses.

I had one on pre-order but canceled it because I bought a bunch of other stuff to test and wasn’t sure how long it would be. So I will probably pick one up later, but might just get a 5N instead (it seems to have improved corners vs the others). I think everything will be in short supply until Sony gets back to full production! They sure are making a nice product though.

I´ve read elsewhere that the Canon FDn 2.0/135 performs excellent on the A7. What about testing this lens? The FDn 1.8/85, 2.0/100 and 2.8/200 are also reknown for their sharpness and contrast (on film).

I have found fd and fdn 100mm 2.8 an exeptional lens on nex 6….am now testing fdn135 2.8 and fd135 2.5.

After doing lts of testing including zeiss contax, zeiss jena etc etc i am very much now focusing on pentax 645 lenses…so far they have really stood out on my nex 6 but would expect them also to be really good on a/ar7…any chance you could test some?
120mm macro, 150mm 3.5, 45mm 2.8 are beyond belief and the rest are all good

The a7s really interests me because while you get less pixels you have far better signal to noise ratio and a better ability to use slower lenes…i wonder how this factors into your test results since you dont touch on dynamic range currently

I will try to compare those, but don’t have a 27mm. I have been concentrating on Samsung cameras mainly because no one else does (no shortage of Fuji reviews). I do really like the Fuji cameras and will try to review some more lenses once I get caught up (it is a hobby for me).